Speaker series looks at women and the dialectics of peace

York’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies and the School of Women’s Studies will mark International Women’s Week, which begins Monday, March 7, with a series of speakers on Women and the Dialectics of Peace. The talks, being held Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, begin at 7pm in the Harry Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson.


The series begins with Sarah Shteir, project associate on the Peace Women Project in the United Nations Office of the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom in New York, whose presentation on Monday is titled “Where are the Women, and What are They Saying? Women in Armed Conflict, Mobilizing for Peace.” The Chair for this presentation is Ester Reiter, professor with Atkinson’s School of Social Sciences and School of Women’s Studies.


Sherene Razack, professor of sociology and equity studies in education at OISE/University of Toronto, will make Tuesday’s presentation: “Racial Violence and Masculinities of the New World Order: Lessons from Peacekeeping.” Razack is the author of Dark Threats and White Knights The Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping and the new Imperialism (University of Toronto Press, 2004). Sheila Cavanagh, professor in Atkinsons’ School of Sciences, will chair.


Sunera Thobani, former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and a professor with the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Research in Women’s Studies and Gender Relations, will give the final presentation of the series on Wednesday. Thobani’s talk, titled “Women and the Globel War on Terrorism”, will be chaired by Kathryn McPherson and Lisa Rosenberg of Atkinson’s School of Women’s Studies.


The series is sponsored by Atkinson, the School of Women’s Studies and the Master’s Office at Atkinson.